


Remains to be seen

by Insertwittyfandomreference



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, Misunderstandings, Post-Season/Series 02, Shirbert, Tragical Romance, everybody else can see it but Anne, she's smart but unobservant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-17 04:23:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20614940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insertwittyfandomreference/pseuds/Insertwittyfandomreference
Summary: ‘Well maybe after all that trouble you could at least walk to school with me on Monday.'She looked at Gilbert. ‘I suppose it's not a terrible idea’After somewhat of a terrible week for Anne, she finds out some interesting information that can’t be easily explained, about a certain raven-haired boy in her class.She knows how Cole would explain it."You know Gilbert has a crush on you, right?"RidiculousShe knows how Diana would explain it“You know you have a crush on Gilbert, right?”Equally ridiculousTLDR: Anne finds out about Gilbert’s fight with Billy over her. Discussions are had. Feelings are revealed. Ft the sweet beginnings of a tragical romance.NOTE: ON HIATUS





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thought I’d write something whilst waiting for the new season. Just a sweet Gilbert and Anne fic I’ve had floating around my head for a while.
> 
> P.S. Sorry if your name is Clarence by the way, I wrote the bit about Anne roasting the name in all my notes before I had even come with what it was, so I actually think the name is quite nice. I had him called bad-guy™ in all my notes and figured he needed a real name, so I just googled old fashioned names and Clarence was one of them. Made me think of the bad-guy™ from 8-mile so I went with that. Also don’t worry if you hate OC’s I do too he’s just a means to an end and doesn’t really feature at all for the rest of the fic.

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This week has been just plain and simply awful for Anne. The end of it couldn’t come fast enough if you asked her. 

It’s a Thursday, week one of two without her sweet dear bosom friend Diana.

Initially, when Diana had told Anne that her family were going on a trip to the country for Minnie May’s birthday, Anne had been ever so excited for her. She didn’t really consider what it would be like being left alone in Avonlea without her closest friend. Not that she wants to be selfish, she truly is happy for Diana, but she just misses her terribly so. 

She still has Ruby, of course, who is truly quite sweet, and the other girls, who are occasionally tolerable, but none of them are as much a kindred spirit of Anne’s as Diana is. 

Its not like she even has Cole anymore. They still write to each other of course, but it isn’t the same as seeing him face to face, and since he moved, she’s only been able to go down to Aunt Jo’s twice to see him, once for Bash and Mary’s wedding and once with Jerry, when Mathew had sent him to Charlottetown to do some shopping. 

And then there was the fact that Gilbert has been out sick all week as well. He’d come down with some type of flu. Anne supposed he must have caught it from Sebastian who had it the week prior. Not that she mourns his absence in any great way, it’s just annoying not having any real sense competition in class. And since Bash and Mary’s wedding, they’d actually become quite a bit more friendly towards each other. 

The other boys in the class seemed to be greatly affected by Gilberts absence. Moody was obviously a bit daft, but otherwise harmless of course, but without Gilbert here the other boys seemed to antagonise her more. Generally, the boys seemed too focused on Gilbert to pay her any attention, which, with the type of attention she attracted from them, was always a good thing. She hadn’t really noticed it as first but as the week has gone on, she can see how much differently they act when Gilbert’s not around. 

Take the new boy, Clarence, for instance. He’d come to Avonlea about month ago and hadn’t said as much as a word to Anne, but after seeing the other boys taunt her on Monday, on Tuesday he took it a step further throwing her hat in the river and pushing her in the dirt when she tried to walk home, calling her a dirty orphan rat in the process. 

Although she supposed if she had been cursed with a name like Clarence, she’d be more inclined to be awful to everyone as well. 

So, all in all, definitely not the best week for Anne. 

How she wished these two weeks would go faster. 

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School seems to drag on. Anne usually loves it, but under the current circumstances she can’t bring herself to. 

Despite this, when class finally ends, Anne chooses to stay behind for ten minutes or so with Miss Stacy, to go over some of the things they’d done in class. Because under no circumstances will Anne Shirley Cuthbert let a sour mood get in the way of her education. Unfortunately, Miss Stacy seems to pick up on her melancholy as well. 

‘I’m surprised you're asking for help for this, it usually comes so easily to you Anne. Is everything alright?’

‘I’m fine Miss Stacy, just a little tired.’

‘Well you make sure you get some rest. I can’t have both my top students out sick.”

Anne gives a small laugh at that, before beginning to pack up her things. Miss Stacy leaves quickly, as she has a meeting town, which is why when Anne leaves the classroom, she expects to be the only person still at school. Strangely enough, as she walks outside, she realises she’s not alone. Clarence is waiting outside, sitting on a rock and fiddling with the buttons on his coat, clearly none the wiser that he was no longer by himself. Oh, such the peak of male intelligence is he. 

Anne grips her hat tight in her hands. She’s feeling brave. ‘I wouldn’t have guessed you would be the sort to hang around a school for much longer than was required of you.’ 

Surprisingly he doesn’t make any rude comment back. He stands up very quickly from where he’d been sitting and wipes his hands down his coat to smooth it out. 

‘Oh yeah I was ah actually waiting, you know, for you.’

She looks at him, perplexed. ‘Waiting for me?’

‘Yeah, actually, I ah wanted to say sorry, for Tuesday, and yesterday.’

She doesn’t quite know how to respond. A confused ‘Oh, okay’, is about all she can manage. 

This doesn’t seem to faze him, he continues. ‘I never should have said what I did, and I’m really sorry about your hat, that was really dumb of me. I’m just you know, new and trying to get the other guys to like me, and I just wasn’t really thinking properly.’

Anne stares at him, wide eyed. 

He continues talking despite her lack of acknowledgement ‘So yeah, just, wanted to say that, that I’m sorry.’

She smiles to herself a little. Maybe she was wrong about Clarence after all. She’s about to tell him that she accepts his apology when he begins speaking again. 

‘So, you know, if you could just do me a favour and maybe not mention anything to Gilbert about all this that’d be great.’

Wait hang on, now she was really confused. ‘Huh?... I’m sorry you’ll have to just go back a second. Not mention this to who?’

‘Gilbert.’

‘Gilbert Blythe?’ 

‘Is there any other Gilbert you know?’ 

‘I’m sorry you are positively confusing me. What does Gilbert have to do with anything?’ 

Now Clarence looks confused. ‘Well you know, he’s like your……protector, or whatever.’

‘He’s my what?’

‘You know, he’s always telling the guys to lay off you and everything.’

She blinks at him, dumbfounded. 

He continues ‘Billy and him got in like a fist-fight about it, so he’s like really serious about the whole thing.’

At this, Anne loses any sense of calm she had up until this point. ‘Wait what? A fist-fi- I mean when was- how didn’t I know? Why?...... Explain.’

He’s clearly uncomfortable now, this wasn’t where he thought this conversation would go ‘Well I mean I don’t know much about it or anything. You know, I’m new here. But apparently, and this was a while back, before Gilbert went on that whole trip thing or whatever, he and Billy got in a fight over it, Gilbert told Billy if he’d ever hassle you again, he’d regret it. And then they punched each other a couple of times. Billy told me he won the fight, but I talked to the other guys and they said Gilbert definitely won.’ 

‘Huh’, she replies. If he was expected anything more than a single syllable from her at the moment, he would be sorely disappointed. 

‘Yeah so Billy warned me and all, after Tuesday, and Gilbert is a lot taller than me, and I’d rather not get beat up in my first month in a new town. So, I was kind of hoping if I apologised, you’d consider not saying nothing to him.’

She doesn’t say anything.

Clarence feels the need to fill the awkward silence ‘Yeah so anyway, like I was saying-’

‘I have to go.’ She turns on her heels and started walking up the path immediately. 

Clarence stands in stunned silence for a moment before chasing after her. He grabs her arm and spins her around to face him. ‘If you weren’t paying attention, we were right in the middle of a conversation there, so where exactly are you running off to so quickly to?’ 

‘Well to see Gilbert of course’ Anne explains as she tries to wriggle out of his grasp. ‘I’m sure if I discuss this with him any misunderstanding will be easily explained.’

He grips her arm harder. ‘Are you crazy? Have you been listening to a single word I’ve been saying?’ He looks around and spots a tree on the side of the path, grabs her, and pins her to it. ‘Listen here you little gutter rat, I was trying to be nice here, but I swear to god if you say anything to anyone about this, especially Gilbert, I will break into that little house of yours at Green Gables and kill you in your sleep. Got it?’ 

She just stares at him, panic filling her eyes. 

He shakes her again. ‘I said got it?’ 

‘Yep. Got it.’ she nods at him nervously 

He pushes her down to the dirt and storms off down the path. 

She stays sitting in the dirt for a minute or two collecting her thoughts. 

‘Well’, she starts speaking to the trees around her, ‘definitely wasn’t wrong about Clarence then…. he’s still awful.’

She stands, and starts brushing the dirt off her dress as she walks back home to Green Gables. Diana was completely right, she thinks. 

Boys are ridiculous.  
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	2. Chapter 2

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‘Anne you’ve hardly touched your dinner, are you feeling alright?’ 

Marilla’s voice breaks Anne out of her trance.

‘Oh, no I’m fine Marilla, I’m just not very hungry today.’

The truth was she couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d found out from Clarence. Could Gilbert really have gotten into a fight with Billy over her? The thought of it just seemed so foreign. 

But it wasn’t just the fight that was confusing her about the whole thing. Really, she felt like that could be easily explained, for she too often wanted to punch Billy Andrews in the face. But the thought that it was over her, and that he’d been protecting her from the other boys since? That she couldn’t comprehend. She supposed they were friends now, but he didn’t seem the sort to care so much about that friendship as to threaten the other boys in the class for talking bad about her. 

Although her main problem with all of it is that, when she really thought hard about it, it seemed to make perfect sense, and she was surprised she hadn’t figured it out before. She could see how differently the boys treated her when Gilbert was around, and she knew some kind of argument had happened between Billy and Gilbert before he’d left. Even when Gilbert had come back their relationship had been fragmented. But she never would have imagined it had anything to do with her.

Marilla still seems concerned about Anne, ‘Is this about Diana? Because you know she’ll be back next Saturday, not long now dear.’

‘Trust me Marilla, I’m fine.’ Anne smiles at her, and for good measure, begins shovelling food into her mouth, trying to throw her off the scent. 

Marilla doesn’t buy it, and sends her to bed early, concerned she might be sick. 

Lying in bed, Anne can’t help but think back to what Cole said to her at the train station. 

_"You know Gilbert has a crush on you, right?"_

That was just a ridiculous thought. 

Right? 

Still, it was one that managed to keep her up all night.  
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At school on Friday she was avoiding Clarence, and he for the most part seemed to be avoiding her as well. Whilst they were doing some English, Anne try to come up with some sort of reason why she could go over to Gilbert’s house to try and get some answers. 

See, she had realised after staying up most of the night that she couldn’t just let it go, and that logically, the only way to get any information was to go straight to the source, she needed some answers from the man himself. Gilbert.

Problem was, after thinking it through, she realised she couldn’t exactly just turn up at his house when he was sick and demand answers about something that apparently maybe happened over a year ago. So, she needed an excuse. 

Really it was just frustrating that she had to find all this out now. Any other time she could have just asked to talk to him after school, but with him out sick she needed a reason to get to him. It wasn’t like he was often out of school these days either. The only other time had been when his father was getting sicker, and obviously his long trip.

Reminiscing, she remembers Mr Phillips making her take Gilbert books from class, so he wouldn’t fall behind. 

That was it! That’s how she can get to Gilbert. Anne silently sends a thank-you to Mr Phillips, for the one and only good thing he’s ever done for her. 

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At the end of the day she’s packing up her books slowly, planning to talk to Miss Stacy after class. When she looks up, the rest of the class has gone, but Ruby appears to be waiting for her. 

‘Oh, you can go Ruby, I’m just going to talk to Miss Stacy after class.’

Ruby frowns ‘Again? Goodness Anne, Diana being gone has really put you for a spin hasn’t it?’

Anne tries to reassure her. ‘Yes Ruby, trust me, it has, but I’ll be alright.’ She gives her a false smile. 

Ruby looks at Anne with hope filled eyes ‘I’m sure when Diana gets back, she will write us an adventurous tale of her time away, and we can both write tragical tales about our time without her.’ 

Anne smiles, genuinely this time. ‘That’s a great idea Ruby. Thanks.’ 

Anne watches Ruby leave with a smile on her face, clearly pleased with herself. Oh, sweet Ruby, she thinks, too innocent for the world. 

She now focuses her attention on Miss Stacy at her desk. Back to the plan. 

Miss Stacy is entrenched in her work when Anne walks up to her, so she clears her throat to get her attention. 

Miss Stacy looks up, ‘Oh, Anne. What can I help you with dear?’ 

‘Hi, Miss Stacy, it’s about Gilbert.’ 

‘Gilbert?’ She’s clearly surprised. 

‘Well he’s been out sick for a full week now.’

‘Yes, I’m aware.’

‘Well I was just wondering if you could give me some work to give him, so he doesn’t fall behind the rest of the class. As you know Gilbert plans to become a doctor and his education is paramount to achieving that dream.’

Miss Stacy hums to herself. ‘Well Anne I very much appreciate your concern for your classmate’s education, but I think we should just focus on letting Gilbert get better, don’t you?’ 

Anne’s smile drops.

Miss Stacy continues ‘I’m sure Gilbert will be easily able to catch up if he’s able to return sometime next week. If he’s going to be out for any longer than that maybe we can discus bringing him some catch up work for home, okay?’

Anne tries not to let her disappointment show too much ‘Yes, you’re probably right. Anyway, I should be getting home.’ 

Miss Stacy focuses her attention back to her work as she waves Anne out, ‘Okay, goodbye Anne, have a nice weekend.’ 

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Anne huffs to herself as she marches home, her brilliant plan failed miserably. 

She tries to keep her hopes up, what would the heroine of a story do? Come up with a new plan of course. 

She supposes Miss Stacy has a point, but Anne certainly doesn’t think she could just wait until Gilbert got back to school, especially if he wasn’t even going to be back by next week. 

Part of her wants to wait until Diana gets back to discuss it with her, but she also knows from past experience that when it comes to Gilbert, Diana can be more of a hindrance than a help. She remembers back to when she’d told Diana about what Cole had said to her at the train station, and Diana’s sarcastic response. 

_“Anne, you know you have a crush on Gilbert, right?”_

Yes, Diana loved to joke, which wouldn’t be at all helpful in Anne’s current situation. 

She considers just going with her original plan and just showing up at his house, but before she needs to think too much on it, she remembers another time she’d been at Gilbert’s house, with Diana and Ruby. 

She grins to herself and hurries home. 

She had her a new plan. Time to set it in motion. 

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Marilla is about to start getting dinner ready when the door bursts open with Anne coming home from school. Before she even has time to ask her about her day, Anne unloads on her. 

‘Gilbert Blythe has been sick for over a week.’

Well, Marilla thinks to herself, that was slightly unexpected. 

She turns to face her daughter. ‘Well hello to you to Anne, I’m fine thank-you for asking.’ 

Anne sighs, dramatically continuing on, ‘I’m sorry Marilla I just think we should be slightly more concerned about Gilbert.’

‘Why, have you heard something?’ 

‘Well no’, Anne says rather petulantly, ‘but I’m still concerned.’

Marilla sighs with a touch of relief, ‘He probably just has the flu dear, it’ll be right’, she pauses, ‘is this what was upsetting you so much last night?’ 

‘No, I told you nothing was upsetting me, I’m just a bit concerned.’

‘You’re concerned?’

‘Yes, and I think we should make him some soup to take to him, because he’s sick and when I’m sick my favourite thing is soup.’

Marilla looks an Anne quizzingly. ‘Last month you told me Gilbert Blythe was an idiot with a superiority complex who did nothing but drag poor Ruby Gillis's heart through the mud. And now you want to make him soup.’ 

Anne groans. ‘Well yes but you see that was last month when I said that, and besides Ruby’s decided that she’s sick of waiting around for Gilbert and wants to marry Charlie Sloane now. I don’t really know what she sees in Charlie but really, I’m happy for her because Gilbert Blythe as any sort of romantic partner of any sort would just be completely ridiculous.'

Marilla crosses her arms at Anne. ‘Hmmm is that so?’

‘Yes, yes it so.’

Marilla briefly lets a knowing smile fall on her lips before regaining her composure. ‘I will never understand you girl. C’mon then I’m not making this by myself. We’ll make it tonight and you can take it to him bright and early tomorrow morning. Better you getting up and doing something with yourself than you sleeping the day away anyhow.’

Anne wraps her arms around Marilla’s waist. 

‘Thank you, thank you, thank-you!’

‘Alright’, Marilla says, laughing. ‘Let’s get to work then.’

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the few of you that have subscribed to this story for whatever reason and are waiting for it, the Gilbert and Anne discussion is next in the next chapter. I’m hoping to get it out soon. Let me know what you thought about this chapter in the comments!


End file.
